Wildlife Gardening - Hedgehog
As I've mentioned before, at Bellecrosshens we garden very much with wildlife in mind working with nature rather than against.
As a result we have an abundance of birds, insects and animals either residing or visiting the garden.
For a while now we've been aware of the presence of hedgehogs visiting over night, we've heard them snuffling and rustling about in the under growth, seen their droppings on the grass and even caught them on the trail cam.
A couple of nights ago when I went to check on the hens I startled one as I caught it in the beam of the torchlight
Hedgehogs will travel quite a distance overnight covering many gardens so we were never sure if they were living in our garden or just passing through.
Today as I was tidying one of the flower boarders I found a larger than usual pile of leaves under the sweet chestnut tree, I had my suspicions, so very gently moved a few of the leaves aside- there fast a sleep was a hedgehog. I quickly covered it back up and left it hopefully undisturbed.
Wow I have never seen a hedgehog before, we have porcupines. THanks for sharing.
I always forget we have different creatures in the UK Porcupines wow now that would be impressive ! Hedgehogs are gardeners friends eating all the slugs and bugs, although they are also partial to eggs, of both wild birds and also chickens given the chance. Sadly hedgehogs were in decline as they are often injured through poisoning, grass cutting and bonfires, also lack of habitat due to tidy gardens and gardens being fenced so they can't go from one garden to another but recently there has been a big awareness campaign and numbers are improving. The increasing number of Badgers also affected the hedgehog population as badgers are one animal that will eat hedgehogs.
Porcupines are typically found in the forest or bush, not in our garden areas. We have groundhogs that do that.
I don't know what are 'Hedgehogs'! But it is quite similar to a species found here.Interesting post.
I'm hoping to get footage on the trailcam tonight I'll post it tomorrow if I do.
There are some hedgehog facts in the link https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/leaflets/L9-Basic-Facts.pdf
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STOPAwesome! I love hedgehogs. They are so nice to have in your garden, indicating that things are still all right with the world.
It's reassuring to know they are on the increase once more but still need all the support they can get.
That's utterly wonderful to have them there. I haven't seen one in years - they used to be all over when I was young. :( I need to put some night cams up at the farm and try to see if there are any there.
We're putting up the trailcam tonight on the bank near the 'nest' to see if we can catch it coming and going. We've caught it on camera a few times. If I get good footage I'll post it tomorrow.
Do you know if you've badgers on the farm? When we first moved here we had several hedgehogs, then we had a family of badgers come into the garden and the hedgehogs disappeared for a few years.Badgers eat hedgehogs
Oh!! Well, I've NEVER seen a badger on the farm but that's not to say there aren't any. There's definitely a den in the chalk pit BUT it's probably foxes. You know - I should buy a cam before we go camping at the end of this month and then we might capture what's there.
do not see to many of those here in Florida, HOW Cute!
Melissa
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STOPDo they bite? If so, you were lucky not to get bit. Do they destroy your garden? These kinds of things are so interesting for me and I love how you work with nature. It would be a dream come true for me to see all of the nature that you do every day. : )
Hedgehogs can bite but rarely do.They are timid shy nocturnal animals and run away if startled. If cornered they roll up into a tight prickly ball. Their prickles are their main defence.
They do no damage to the garden and are known as the gardeners friend as they'll eat all the slugs and pests.
They will eat the eggs of ground nesting birds so aren't popular to everyone.